Given the messy intractability of state failure, who or what has a chance of solving it?

ECONOMIST: Failed states

Paul Theroux, a hard-to-please American travel writer, experienced French intractability at first hand on the Orient Express.

ECONOMIST: For some, France is still on the other side of the earth

The young director, Joe Carnahan, wants to impress upon us the intractability of our life on this earth.

NEWYORKER: Narc

At a moment when nationalistic claims and counter-claims are resounding over the ice-floes, the region's intractability still forces its would-be conquerors to rub along.

ECONOMIST: The Arctic